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Dinosaurs/2015 Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Tim and Moby are at a natural history museum. They walk up to a huge dinosaur skeleton. TIM: Whoa. Moby points at a dinosaur bone leg that Tim's father dug earlier. MOBY: Beep. TIM: You're gonna break it! Moby tips over the dinosaur bone, and breaks. TIM: D'oh...! Tim reads from a typed letter. TIM: Dear Tim and Moby, what's with the Stegosaurus's plates? I thought they were armor, but my teacher says they were too fragile. From, Del. Moby opens a panel on his arm and pushes a button. TIM: Hey, that's a great— Tim and Moby are transported to prehistoric times. They are in a dry, sunny place with rocky outcroppings and dinosaurs all around them. TIM: Whoa. Moby, we're not going to see a Stegosaurus here. Moby pushes the button on his arm again. The two are transported to hot, swampy surroundings. TIM: Or here. Moby reaches for his button again. Tim restrains Moby's shoulder to stop him. TIM: Wait. You'll never find it by traveling around randomly. Dinosaurs roamed the earth for one hundred and sixty million years. An image shows a variety of large and small dinosaurs on a section of a timeline. Text beneath the image reads: 160 million years. TIM: That's about a thousand times longer than modern humans have been around. A humanoid appears in a very small space of time at the recent end of the timeline. TIM: You'd blow a fuse trying to cover the entire Mesozoic Era. Text beneath the timeline changes to read: Mesozoic Era. MOBY: Beep. Moby is nervous. He points upward. A large dinosaur looks down at them and growls. TIM: Go, go, go! Moby presses his arm button. Moby and Tim vanish. The dinosaur chomps down on nothing. MOBY: Beep. Tim and Moby are back at the natural history museum. Tim's eyes are closed tightly, and he is hugging Moby. He opens his eyes. TIM: Thank you. Tim steps back from Moby. TIM: When Stegosaurus was first discovered, it was assumed that those plates acted like armor; newer evidence shows that they were fragile and filled with blood vessels. An animation shows a Stegosaurus confronting another dinosaur. TIM: But that doesn't mean they couldn't have used them for protection. The Stegosaurus might have flooded them with blood as a warning display. The plates of the Stegosaurus turn fiery red. The other dinosaur runs away. TIM: Or it might have been used to attract mates. An animation shows a male and a female Stegosaurus with their faces near each other. Hearts float in the air above them as their plates turn red. TIM: Or control its body temperature. An animation shows a Stegosaurus on a towel on a beach. It is wearing sunglasses. Its plates are red and are radiating heat waves. TIM: And maybe all of the above. MOBY: Beep. Moby shrugs. TIM: Well, we still have a lot to learn about dinosaurs. And it's tough to be certain when all we have to go on are fossils. Those are the remains of ancient organisms. Most fossil finds are nowhere near a complete skeleton. An image shows dinosaur footprints. Text beneath the image reads: trace fossil. A second image shows a part of an animal's skeleton. Text beneath that image reads: mold fossil. A third image shows a single animal bone. Text beneath that image reads: cast fossil. TIM: Try guessing how a dinosaur looked and behaved, just from examining a few bones and footprints. But that's just what paleontologists do. An animation shows a paleontologist working at a dinosaur dig. He places a bone in a box and puts a lid on it. Text on the box reads: Utah. TIM: They gather clues from around the world to assemble a snapshot of a species. An animation shows a paleontologist examining dinosaur bones. As she does so, she imagines what the dinosaur may have looked like. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Paleontologists have added hundreds of dinosaurs to the fossil record, a history of all life on Earth. An image shows a chart of the fossil record. Several geologic eras and periods are represented. TIM: One of the earliest species is the Eoraptor. He lived about two hundred thirty million years ago, during the Triassic period. An image shows an Eoraptor skeleton. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yeah, it's hard to even imagine how far back that is, but this will give you an idea. The continents didn't exist yet. All the land was smooshed together in a mass we call Pangaea. Most of it was a hot desert, perfect for a small reptile like Eoraptor. An animation shows a map of the world, with all the continents joined into one land mass, Pangaea. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Yup. Dinosaur means "terrible lizard", but those first ones weren't too scary. Eoraptor was about the size of a beagle. He was an omnivore, feeding on both plants and small animals. Moby shoots a ray at an Eoraptor skeleton in the museum. An energy ball forms around it. It turns into a living Eoraptor, which growls and runs away. Tim looks toward the sound of the noise. Moby stands in front of the Eoraptor's pedestal so Tim cannot see that it has run off. TIM: This baby Mussaurus could fit in the palms of your hands. An image shows a Mussaurus skeleton standing on a pedestal. TIM: These little dinos probably weren't the dominant species of their time. The energy ball that Moby made bounces onto the Mussaurus, and it comes to life, too. Tim does not notice. TIM: They competed for survival with early mammals and other reptiles. {Snarl} An animation shows two small dinosaurs fighting over food. Mammals and reptiles stand around them, watching. TIM: But around two hundred million years ago, more than half of all these species got wiped out. MOBY: Beep. TIM: We know because the rock layers from around this time contain so few fossils. This mass extinction might be connected to the breakup of Pangaea. An animation shows a paleontologist examining the rock layers Tim is describing. TIM: Volcanic eruptions lasting thousands of years began to spread the land apart. An animation shows Pangaea breaking up into several continents. TIM: All that volcanic activity would have changed the climate and filled the air with poison gas. An animation shows powerful volcanic earthquakes. Smoke rises from huge cracks in the ground and floats into the air. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Earth has gone through several mass extinctions in its history. Many species die off, but it's like a reset button that lets new creatures thrive. This time it led to the rise of the dinosaurs during the Jurassic period. Moby's energy ball bounces behind Tim and Moby. Tim does not notice it. TIM: Dense jungles replaced the widespread deserts. And as continents began to drift around the globe, the dinosaurs went along for the ride. An animation shows two dinosaurs in a watery grassland. A body of water between them gets larger as the land they stand on drifts apart. MOBY: Beep. TIM: During the Jurassic, they got much, much larger. Some carnivores, like the Allosaurus, grew to several thousand pounds. Tim and Moby look at a life-size model of an Allosaurus on display at the museum they are visiting. MOBY: Beep. TIM: But that's nothing compared to the plant-eaters. The Stegosaurus got up to around ten thousand pounds. Tim and Moby look at a life-size model of a Stegosaurus. TIM: And the Apatosaurus could tip the scales at over a hundred thousand. Tim and Moby look at a life-size model of an Apatosaurus. TIM: That's as heavy as a passenger plane. {Growl} Moby's energy ball bounces behind them. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It didn't sound like the wind. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Oooo. Moby points at something elsewhere in the museum. It catches Tim's attention. They walk away from the growling sound. TIM: The Cretaceous period had the coolest dinosaurs. The carnivores got even bigger, like this Spinosaurus. He's the biggest meat-eating dinosaur on record. Tim and Moby look at a life-size model of a Spinosaurus. TIM: And the Tyrannosaurus rex had the strongest bite of any land animal ever. Tim and Moby look at a life-size model of a Tyrannosaurus rex. TIM: That's why some paleontologists think he was a deadly hunter. An animation shows a Tyrannosaurus rex eating a dead Triceratops. The "Tyrannosaurus rex" roars. TIM: But others say he was too big and slow to chase prey. MOBY: Beep. TIM: They think T. rex was a scavenger, picking over dead animals for meals. The Tyrannosaurus rex waves its short front legs weakly as another dinosaur passes and then goes back to eating the Triceratops. TIM: Whatever he ate, he could put down five hundred pounds of it in one bite. {Screams.} TIM: What was that? MOBY: Beep. {Whoosh} TIM: Yup, the continents kept drifting apart during the Cretaceous. The continents on the map move apart from one another as Tim continues. TIM: Oceans and mountains formed, separating different groups of dinosaurs. As a result, they grew more diverse. Nine images appear. Each shows a different dinosaur. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Hadrosaurids, the duck-bills, were champion chewers. They had over a thousand teeth to help them grind up vegetation. An animation shows two duck-billed dinosaurs. One is chewing the leaves from a tall tree. TIM: Dromaeosaurids, the raptors, developed larger brains. They probably used their smarts to hunt in packs. Moby looks at life-size models of three different raptors. They are feathered. TIM: Look at those long, razor-sharp claws. An image shows a raptor's foot, which has three dangerous-looking claws on it. TIM: If these guys right here suddenly came to life? We'd be in some hot water. Moby's energy ball bounces by. Moby sees it and becomes nervous. The ball bounces toward the raptors. Moby jumps as if blocking a goal at a soccer game. He hits the floor with a loud crash. Tim turns and looks at him. TIM: What are you doing? MOBY: Beep. Moby smiles and gestures at the raptor models behind him. TIM: Yup. Raptors probably had feathers as well as scales. They couldn't fly, but the feathers might have helped keep them warm. But that didn't help them survive what happened next. MOBY: Beep. TIM: It's thought that a large asteroid strike triggered another mass extinction. An animation shows several different dinosaurs looking upward. An asteroid flies across the sky and hits the ground. Everything goes dark. TIM: It kicked up enough dust to block out the sun for years. Plants died, and temperatures plummeted. With no way to quickly adapt, the dinosaurs went extinct. An animation portrays the sudden extinction of plants and dinosaurs. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Actually, one branch of their family tree did make it through. Birds split off from dinosaurs sometime during the Cretaceous. Their warm blood and larger brains helped them adapt to the challenging new environment. An animation portrays the evolution of birds from dinosaurs. MOBY: Beep. Tim and Moby walk out of the museum's front door. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Good idea. I'm so hungry I could— Zamboni! Tim is suddenly startled. The dinosaurs that came to life in the museum are walking around outside. One waits in line at a hot dog stand. TIM: I'm gonna guess you're behind this. MOBY: Beep. TIM: Well, at least he's waiting his turn. They both shrug their shoulders and walk toward the hot dog stand. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Science Transcripts